A few weeks ago I came across a web page with great piece of advice and planned to post them on my blog. To augment these suggestions, I started writing down some of the gems I have learned from my family, friends, and colleagues and quickly realized that these alone make a complete blog post. As we just celebrated New Year’s Day, it is always a good opportunity to take stock of ourselves and visualize what kind of person we wish to become. I hope the below wisdom inspires you like it has inspired me. Thanks to everyone in my life for helping me learn all of these lessons.
If you can’t decide between doing something and not doing something, go ahead and do it. Most regrets in life are for opportunities lost.
Life has little pleasure without taking risks – live outside your comfort zone.
Live a life of gratitude. In any personal accomplishment, always take inventory of everyone who helped you get there and thank them.
Strive to live life without fear. One way to do this is to mitigate risk – have a sizable savings account, life insurance, good health insurance, and other things to provide cushion. Then be bold, be courageous, and do things that scare the hell out of you.
Send your mom flowers on YOUR birthday
Try out for everything, apply for every job that you think would be fun and interesting, ask girls out who you perceive to be “out of your league”. Let other’s say “no” to you, but never beat yourself out of something before you even try.
When people do things to anger you, they are often trying to anger you. Don’t give them the satisfaction. Once you let someone anger you, you are also letting them control you.
Forgive everyone – even those who don’t feel sorry for what they did and don’t want forgiveness.
Be the change you want to see in yourself. Do things that feel unnatural and inauthentic if you feel them to be the right and virtuous things to do. Over time, these behaviors will feel natural and will become you.
Being insatiably curious keeps life fresh, fun, and full of wonder.
Always live below your means (and build a savings account)
Save your best self for your spouse or significant other. Treat them better than anyone else in your life.
You can only help someone as much as they want to to be helped.
Never do anything out of anger, no matter how well justified.
We can only see in others what exists in ourselves. When you see negative traits in others, those traits exist within you. However, when you see goodness in others, it means that goodness resides within you too. If you primarily see negativity, start looking in the mirror.
Always assume positive intent in others.
There is something to like about the vast vast amount of people. So when you are frustrated with someone, always remember that people are complicated. Few people are pure good or pure bad – we all live somewhere in the middle – so focus on what makes them good.
There is something that can be learned from anyone if you ask the right questions.
Only two things really change human behavior: fear/shame and aspiration/hope. Fear is more intense but short-lived, hope is less intense than fear, but can last a lifetime. When setting goals, always base them on hope.
Learn to appreciate the painful moments in your life – they are the only things that truly allow you to grow. When you come out the other end, you will come out stronger, wiser, and have far more depth.
Stop thinking about what you rightly deserve and/or how other people are getting ahead unfairly. This will only make you miserable. Just be grateful in everything in life.
Have a realistic understanding of the world. Jobs get lost. Couples split. People die. If your life is great, don’t take it for granted – realize that you have something wonderful and really soak it in. Things will change. They always do.
